More Geek

After using a computer as much as I have you start to notice the little
inconveniences that do not affect the ‘average’ computer user. Inevitably these
issues become annoying and must be remedied. One thing that bothers me
is the way molex pins get slightly bent so any sort of installation
becomes a hassle? Or how about when your keyboard has a slightly sticky key
that does not push down or return as smoothly as the rest? Or when you play a
game that runs in a different resolution than your OS and when you close the
game all your desktop’s icons are in the wrong spot?

You get the idea- everyone has a few little problems. One of the most common
of these is when your mouse is pulled away from you by the weight of its wire
behind your desk. Whether your mouse is actually moved when your hand is off it
or your accuracy is affected by the pull, the weight of an improperly positioned
mouse cord can affect mousing.

This happens because most mouse wires are pretty long, usually four to six
feet. Since your mouse is rarely that far from the the back of your case the
excess wire is generally pushed behind your desk. Here, unless secured, it falls
to the floor and will inevitably pull on your mouse. Depending on the weight of
your mouse and the amount of wire hanging, this may or may not affect
performance. But for the hardcore gamer or fastidious user this situation could
be problematic.

That ‘better way’ just may be the WireWeight. Designed specifically to keep
wires in place, this is a very simple solution to a problem that lots of us
face. The WW is mainly marketed towards use with a mouse but they will work just
as well with any sort of wire. For example, something like USB card
readers, which are notoriously tough to keep in place.

The WireWeight is 8 oz. (226.8 g) of machined bronze. It is comprised of two
pieces that screw together, sandwiching a cable between them. At only 1.75″ (d)
x 0.75″ (h) (44mm x 19mm) it is small and should be quite unobtrusive on your
desk.

One of the best parts of the WW is the lack of frills. It comes with no
accessories, adhesives, or anything like that. To use it with your mouse all you
have to do is unscrew it, place your mouse cable in the slot in the ‘male’
piece, and the screw the two pieces back together. You should screw tight enough
that the two WW’s top and bottom are firm but no so tightly that you could
damage the wire’s rubber coating.

The slot in which the wire is place is 7mm across so you can fit a pretty
large wire or cord in it. The largest item we could use the WW with was an
ethernet cable, which fit in comfortably. The WW could not handle a standard
PSU/monitor power cable.

WireWeight.com suggests you leave four to five inches of slack between
your WW and the mouse but this length is really up to the user. Depending our
your desktop, mousepad, and mouse sensitivity you may desire more or less slack.
This distance has no effect on the WW so you might as well use a little extra-
the WW will only be moved if it is pulled by a taut cable not if it pushed by
the minimal force of a slack cable.

By the way, the WW does not use any sort of rubber to help keep it in place.
Wire Weights firmly believes that the 1/2 pound of brass will not move on you
desk…

{mospagebreak}

Testing

I tested our WW out using our Razer Viper mouse and our Microsoft
Intellimouse Explorer 4.0. In case you are not familiar with these mice-
the Razer uses a very long cord (~7 ft) which is thinner than the average USB
wire. The Microsoft’s cable is a bit shorter but it is a good deal thicker so,
on the whole, it is heavier.

The Intellimouse Explorer 4.0 was, for a pretty long time, my favorite mouse
on the market. Like most other mice its cord did tend to hang and pull the
mouse, but I never saw this as a problem since it happened with every
non-cordless mouse. When I used it with the Wire Weight this problem no longer
existed- the weight of the WW was able to hold the cord in place and prevent the
mouse from being pulled.

Due to the thinness of the Viper’s cord it is very light and it does not tend
to pull the mouse as much as other mice. What happens with the Viper is that the
cord is very long and the mouse is very light so sometimes the excess cord can
actually bunch up and push the mouse. This happened rarely but when it did it
was quite bothersome.

After installing the WW I had great results with the Viper. This mouse is
designed to work at a high sensitivity so you do not really need much slack in
your cable (because the mouse’s movements are very small). All you have to do is
put the WW a little closer to the mouse than you normally would and you are in
business.

Once issue I did encounter with the WireWeight during installing is when you
are screwing or unscrewing the two pieces. Due to the friction of the zinc
coating the movement of the two pieces of the WW is like scratching your
fingernails against a blackboard. I know this is a very minor issue but
apparently WireWeights thought it was significant enough to address on their
site. They said this happens only on the black model and there are two good
solutions. First you can buy another WW which is not zinc-coated and mix and
match the pieces- since only one side is zinc-coated the problem will not occur.
The other way to fix this is to put a tiny bit of hand soap on the threads to
lubricate things. Wire Weights say you can use either liquid or bar soap and
that these would be better than using something that is oil-based.

I tried out the soap method on the WW and I have to say the difference was
noticeable. I used a very little dab of liquid Palmolive and reinstalled the WW.
Now there was no sound when turning the threads and the movement was almost
frictionless. Plus, my WW now smells orange-y fresh!

There is not a whole lot to say about WireWeights. They are an effective and
stylish way to manage your cables, specifically those that are on your desktop.
The WW will work with pretty much anything smaller than an ethernet cable- phone
wires, most speaker wire, keyboard cords, and so forth. Our WireWeight worked
very well with both the mice we tried it with…

To be honest, for years I have accomplished the same result by putting my
computer’s speaker on top of my mouse cable. The problem could also be fixed
with some duct tape. Are these solutions aesthetically appealing? No. Are they
suitable for an office setting? Nope. I guess the choice is up to you.

From my experience I can tell you the WireWeight delivers on what they say
they would. They do, in fact, keep your mouse stable and free of unwanted
movement. I think the appeal of the WireWeight is not only is functionality but
its good looks, simple design, and impressive craftsmanship.